Is it possible to save data to a file on users hard drive

A client has asked if I can create an admin facility to enable them to export the data from the MYSQL database to a text file on the users hard drive.

Is this even possible? I was thinking perhaps not however I was recently able to create and save a pdf to a users hard drive using fpdf php class.

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks

Paul

What is the critical difference you see between pdf and text file, that prevents last one from being saved on the client’s computer?

Hi Shrapnel

The only difference is I had a function in fpdf to save the PDF to the users hard drive whereas I don’t have any such function to save a text file to a users hard drive:)

Paul

Search this forum for the something like force-download and most likely you will find a code you need

Ah cool - thanks for the magic search terms - I did try searching for “save file” but had no joy

hmm why would you want to save a file to a users hard drive will the end user know your doing this?

Basically it is for an admin facility so someone who has not got access to phpMyAdmin can save the data that has been submitted to the database to a file that they can then process.

I would have thought this is a really common need as lots of websites write data to the database and there must be some way of those less technical people getting a hold of this data.

They get it via the technical ppl :slight_smile:
This is far more than a common need, it is standard practice, just not in the way you envision.

Thanks hash - so are you saying the technical ppl manually retrieve this information from the server for the non technical ppl?